Phil raises an interesting issue, about distrust towards government in the US.

Is it towards the federal government or towards any local power?
In Europe, there is also a distrust towards the EU executive branch in Brussels: that's why it's easy to blame Brussels for any decision concerning all kinds of matter.

The main point though, is to understand what the governement is competent for.
We live it in a smaller scale, in Belgium. Many decisions are best taken within a local frame, not a federal nor an international one. But it's very hard to understand why and when and if the comptence ever was removed from one frame to another.

What the EU commission is investigating all the time is whether or not local initiatives have implications (unfair competition) vis-à-vis other people in the EU, for instance. The French fishermen are mad because the EU tells them to stop fishing this kind of fish, because in a few years, there won't be any left. The EU bases this decision on studies that have scientific merit, lots of figures, are dispassionate but are just facts.

I sometimes have the impression it's not really the system that is questioned in the US , but the people who are in it, those who take the decisions (I still wonder if the US Constitution has changed since its inception, because we don't live in the same world as 230 years ago, ir is the US Constitution so "Sacred" it cannot be even slightly changed).
In all society, someone must decide; is it better for CEO's to take them or the people's representatives? Here, those who get elected know in advance how much they'll earn. We don't know the lobbying system as it's known in the US, but we have unions who represent those who work. Depending on a country's habit, the government first consults the unions before making a decision (with their consentment or at least their knowledge) or the government decides before consulting the unions (which generally is not a good idea because strikes are almost certain after that). In the US, there are lobbies for all kinds of things (I know the NSS, for instance). It seems interesting to know people can talk to their representatives in order to get them to vote in favor of ideas (like building an interplanetary manned spaceship (why not!!)). But this can lead towards money going from one pocket to another, which smells a lot like corruption. On the other hand, those in power know they can't stay there forever, know they might get caught if they do anything illegal (well, it depends on whether an intitiative IS considered illegal).
I find quite amazing to ellect representatives (our choice) and not trust them anyway.
After all, if we work for somebody, we also must understand what he wants; if we don't agree, we can always change and work for someone else. Work for your own business? Fine, great, but there won't be any work if there are no clients. Our boss also must take them into account just as government representatives must take their voters into account.

Raoul